f88 THE EMBRYO. 



seed is perfect, or capable of vegetation, 

 however complete in external appearance. 

 Linnaeus, after Ceesalpinus, names it the 

 Corculum, or Little Heart, and it is the 

 point whence the life and organization of 

 the future plant originate, as we have al- 

 ready explained, p. 96. In some seeds it 

 is much more conspicuous than in others. 

 The Walnut, the Bean, Pea, Lupine, &c, 

 show the Embryo in perfection. Its inter- 

 nal structure, before it begins to vegetate, 

 is observed by Gaertner to be remarkably 

 simple, consisting of an uniform medullary 

 substance, enclosed in its appropriate bark 

 or skin. Vessels are formed as soon as the 

 vital principle is excited to action, and 

 parts are then developed which seemed not 

 previously to exist, just as in the egg of a 

 bird. In position, the Embryo is, with 

 respect to the base of the whole flower or 

 fruit, either erect, as in the Dandelion and 

 other compound flowers, reversed as in the 

 Umbelliferous tribe, or horizontal as in the 

 Date Palm, Gcertner, t. 9- In situation 

 it is most commonly within the substance 

 of the seed, and either central as in Un> 



